“It seems like you’ve had a pretty long day, you know you don’t have to cook?”                     

“I need to cook otherwise I have nothing to do with my hands.” Tina said as she picked up her knife again.

That made her smile easily, “I can think of a few things to keep them busy.” She whispered against Tina’s ear lobe.

“I imagine that you can, but the question is what we will do with my daughter who is, right at this moment standing behind you.” Bette turned around and laughed, Tina was right, Angie was standing behind them. Quiet as ever she just stood there watching them.

“Call it motherly instinct.” Tina quietly laughed kissing Bette’s cheek.

“We have to finish.” The little girl said speaking directly to Bette as she threw her hands on hips. Bette laughed unexpectedly, she was showcasing Tina’s attitude without a doubt. Bette sat back down with Angie and continued her share of the page they were coloring together.

……………………………………

“Tina? Dr. Porter’s on line 4, can I put her through?”

“Hang on one second Margaret. I still have Kaylan on the line.” Tina spoke for another minute before she switched back and told Margaret to patch Bette straight through. The expected three short beeps indicated that Bette could now hear her.

“Hey babe what’s up?” Tina spoke into her headset while she typed some reminder notes into her calendar.

“What would I wear to vacation in Montana?” Bette’s voice came through her headset. Tina was momentarily stunned. It had been almost a full two weeks since Tina had asked Bette to join them in Montana. She’d asked a million and one questions about Montana since then, starting with the area where they would be staying, whether or not they had access to organic foods, what kind of transportation they would use, whether the house had insulation, what type of wild animals were within roaming distance to the house, but never had she asked about what type of clothes she would need. She was always conscientious of the way she would ask Tina these questions, she never wanted to give Tina a false hope of her saying yes. Tina sat still sort of dumbfounded as to why Bette would suddenly ask such a question, was this her way of saying yes?